PASTOR TAMARA BENNETT: RAISING THE NEXT GENERATION OF SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF THE GOSPEL

PASTOR TAMARA BENNETT

RAISING THE NEXT GENERATION OF SONS AND DAUGHTERS

By Contributing Writer, Donna Michele Ramos

Dr. Pastor Tamara Bennett has served as Senior Pastor of This Is Pentecost Fellowship Ministries since June 2000. It has two locations in Oakland and Sacramento, California. She and her husband Elder Quentin Bennett have helped around the world with prayer sessions, anointed revivals, youth conferences, multiple outreach services to the community and a worldwide virtual congregation. Her 501c3 organization, the Daughters of Zion Enterpryz, Inc., (DOZ), annually feeds, clothes, and houses over 9000 individual families. DOZ also provides housing, job training skills, and financial workshops for displaced young women seeking transformation and empowerment. Dr. Bennett’s greatest gift of all is being a loving mother to their four children and a supportive wife to her husband. Sac Cultural Hub Media Foundation was honored to have Dr. Bennett present as the Keynote Speaker at the 13th Annual EWOC Awards & Expo on September 28th.

THE HUB: Dr. Bennett when you were a child (8 years old), did you ever think that you would be a pastor and speaking all over the world? Dr. BENNETT: Not at all. I was always in drama, from kindergarten to graduation. I always had my sights on public performance. I was steered more towards communication and commentating. In high school I won the Oratory State Championship. My dad was a pastor. I had pastoral roots, understanding and an example.

THE HUB: What kinds of advice do you have for young girls these days about body image especially with all that is displayed on social media. Lots of teenage girls are struggling with what they see on social media and some have fallen into depression and in some cases thinking of suicide. What are your thoughts on this? Dr. BENNETT: I tell my teenage daughters we love you and see who you are. We see and accept you. They are 15 and 16 not into make-up yet, still in braids. Nothing is sexier than confidence. See me, I love me and you are missing out on me. The earlier I help them to love who they are the better. The scripture says we are fearfully and wonderfully made. I don’t want to look like anybody else but who God made me to be.

THE HUB: For the past close to 2 years now we have been in the Coronavirus pandemic. How has COVID-19 affected you professionally and personally? Dr. BENNETT: It made me more confident in a large way because it tried my faith, what I’ve been taught and minister about. If ever it was a time people need hope and healing it is during this pandemic. Our congregation is blessed, there have been no deaths. Professionally it made me bolder with my faith. God blessed our business in the middle of a pandemic. We were feeding 10,000 people a year and during

the pandemic, we fed 40,000. It elevated my professional purpose as a servant of God. We all became equal and I love it. Didn’t matter who you were. No one is exempt; it was the great equalizer. Sacramento Food Bank used and still uses our parking lot to distribute food. My husband and I took food to healthcare workers on the midnight shift. People forget about them. I believe in the power of mankind and caring for each other.

THE HUB: You and your husband and I quote your husband’s bio “...are raising, the next generation of phenomenal sons and daughters in the gospel”. I absolutely love this. Tell me more about how you have been doing this and the advice you have for mothers and fathers raising children and teenagers in this day and time. Dr. BENNETT: Typical old school, lead by example. My husband is from Florida and I’m from Detroit. I have always liked southern and he likes city. We don’t profess a perfect marriage; we serve a perfect God and are honest with him. Honesty transfers to our family and kids. I monitor my daughters’ chasteness and purity. We have candid conversations about sex and guys. They know my childhood struggles. I was raped and shared that with them so they know why I’m like this with them. Our responsibility is to establish a safe place for your kids. We have to be involved in their lives. Try to understand and guide them in old-school thinking, you should keep your virginity. You don’t want to be that girl who sleeps with men and lets their emotions go. Women have value, you can’t sell yourself short. We teach our son who is 22 and he works with his father in the restaurant. We duplicated what we teach in our congregation. Some were gang bangers now they work, have businesses and own homes. It’s the path we carved out, sons and daughters all over the world, my husband and I mentor them.

THE HUB: Dr. Bennett you are definitely a woman with many talents and juggling many things - tell us more about your foundation and also the restaurant that you and your husband Chef Quentin Bennett (Chef Q) own and run. Dr. BENNETT: I worked for American Airlines for 13 years. That was my first understanding of the corporate world. I started as a reservation agent then sales in San Francisco and ended up as SABRE trainer for the Pacific northwest. The passing of my first husband led me to the ministry. My husband and I met at a former restaurant he worked at Rio City Café. We got married in 2003. Owning a restaurant, I never saw me in the picture it was always his thing. 2019 was 25 years of him being a chef. At the end, he made a huge leap of faith to do his own thing. He quit his job October 8, 2019, and the building he’s in now was available October 12, 2019. He got a vision of what he wanted and the culture of it. He launched the restaurant on his birthday December 27, 2019. He didn’t want to name it after himself but we told him he had to. So, he named it “Q1227.” We serve modern comfort food. Q stayed true to his southern roots but added California freshness. We have a phenomenal seafood platter, etc. What I respect is when he got the keys, he said you’re my general manager. He was brave to make me general manager after I saw what his vision was. I didn’t know how much he struggled to be a black chef in these fine dining restaurants. The white chefs did not share recipes, etc. It was not until he got his own spot that I saw the passion and excellence commitment, he unleashed. I underestimated what your vision was. You weren’t complaining you were frustrated. I heard it as complaining but it wasn’t. Greatness is inside of you and you can’t let it out. To see this manifestation, I’m in awe every night. Sisters don’t underestimate your black man.

I BELIEVE IN WHERE GOD

HAS BROUGHT ME. IF HE DID IT FOR ME, HE CAN DO IT FOR ALL. I WON’T STOP

TELLING OTHERS. THE HUB: you? 3 words that best describe Dr. BENNETT: She died trying. THE HUB: Your hero? Dr. BENNETT: My mom. She is one of the females I watched take a licking and keep on ticking. She is 84 years old. I’d love to make her brave enough to tell her story of how God helped her through it. In the 1960’s you didn’t talk about domestic violence. She’s from the generation where you don’t tell people your bad stuff. My strength comes from watching her survive. She raised my sister, my brother, and me. My dad was too but especially my mom, my hero. THE HUB: Best life experience? Dr. BENNETT: Finding Jesus and family. My husband is allowing us to have this life together. Family is priceless to me. Finding Jesus Christ is what allowed me to have this. I appreciate my husband and what he has built for us. I appreciate how my husband gives me the avenue to do what I am called to do. He’s the king. THE HUB: In your own words, what or who defines an “Exceptional Woman of Color”? Dr. BENNETT: Confidence. At my meeting today with Sen. McClintock he said the Constitution says we the people was meant for all of us because if you don’t believe in that you don’t believe in the will of God because it’s we the people. We must dismiss what you can’t do or be. It’s a waste of time and energy. Have confidence you can do and be what your God-given purpose is. You can’t look to others for validation. Believe and respect yourself. You do it, in time it comes. THE HUB: What do you like about Sacculturalhub.com and THE HUB Magazine? Dr. BENNETT: I love how incredibly brutally honest you guys are. Candid, fair honest not abrasive or offensive. To hear a balance, I would take note.n

www.dozenterpryz.org www.tamarabennettministries.com